Ploughman's lunch
Photo: Clothahump (talk) · Public domain

History

While bread-cheese-pickle lunches have been farmworker's fare for centuries, the formal ploughman's lunch as a named pub dish was a 1950s invention of the English Country Cheese Council, who promoted it to drive cheese sales after the end of WWII rationing in 1954. By the 1960s every pub in the country had it on the menu, and London's Victorian pubs adopted it as the signature cold lunch option. The modern London ploughman's leans heavily into artisan British cheeses (Stichelton, Cornish Yarg, Stilton, Westcombe Cheddar) and small-producer pickles; pubs like The French House and Andrew Edmunds keep the format alive.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 15 minTotal 15 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 200g mature cheddar (Westcombe, Quicke's, Montgomery or Keen's)
  • 150g Stilton or Stichelton blue
  • 150g soft cheese (Tunworth, Baron Bigod, or Camembert)
  • 1 large rustic sourdough loaf, sliced
  • 100g salted butter
  • 200g Branston pickle (the orange-brown chunky relish in a jar)
  • 8 silverskin pickled onions
  • 4 slices traditional pork pie (Melton Mowbray if possible)
  • 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
  • 2 crisp eating apples (Cox or Braeburn), quartered
  • Small handful watercress
  • Optional: 4 slices Wiltshire ham, jar of piccalilli, 200g cooked beetroot

Method

  1. Bring all cheeses out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving; cheese tastes of much more at room temperature than chilled.
  2. Hard-boil the eggs (cold-start, simmer 9 minutes, cool in iced water). Peel and halve.
  3. Slice the bread into thick wedges; offer with the butter at room temperature.
  4. Slice the pork pie cleanly with a sharp serrated knife; the jelly layer between meat and pastry is the marker of a proper Melton Mowbray.
  5. Lay out a large wooden board or 4 individual plates.
  6. Arrange cheeses in a row, each with its own small knife.
  7. Add a wedge of pork pie, half a hard-boiled egg, two pickled onions, a generous spoon of Branston, an apple quarter, and a handful of watercress to each plate.
  8. Set bread and butter at the edge.
  9. Serve with cold cask ale or cider. No knife and fork needed; this is a build-your-own assembly meal.

Tip from the editors. Three cheeses is the bare minimum: one blue, one hard cheddar, one soft bloomy. A ploughman's with only one cheese is a cheese sandwich pretending.

Where to eat ploughman's lunch

Ploughman's lunch in London

The French House ★ 4.0

££ British gastropubSoho

Neil Borthwick's upstairs dining room above the historic French House pub on Dean Street in Soho London, opened 2017, the city's most-defended phone-free.

Why locals goAn upstairs Soho dining room above a historic pub that bans mobile phones and serves the Modern British canon to a hushed dining room of regulars.

TipNo mobile phones, no music. Tables book one week ahead. The downstairs pub still pours a proper half-pint of bitter for £2.50.

Directions

Andrew Edmunds ★ 4.8

££ Modern EuropeanSoho

Andrew Edmunds's candlelit Lexington Street bistro in Soho London, opened 1985 by the print-dealer Edmunds, still the city's preferred Soho dining-room.

Why locals goA candlelit Georgian townhouse bistro hidden between the Soho tourist circuit and Carnaby Street since 1985, established by Londoners and missed by visitors.

TipBar seats at the front are released as walk-ins after 21:30. The handwritten daily menu does not appear online.

Directions

The Eagle ★ 4.3

££ GastropubClerkenwell

Britain's first gastropub on Farringdon Road in Clerkenwell London, opened 1991 by Mike Belben and David Eyre, still serves Mediterranean-leaning.

OrderThe Bife Ana steak sandwich, on the menu since 1991, and a pint of bitter.

TipWalk-in only. The chalkboard menu rewrites every day at 12:00; the best dishes go by 14:00 on a busy lunch.

Directions

The Jugged Hare ★ 4.1

£££ British GastropubClerkenwell

The Jugged Hare on Chiswell Street in the City of London, opened 2012 by ETM Group, runs a game-led gastropub menu with hung-game cabinets in the dining room.

OrderWhole roast partridge or grouse in season, or the family-style Sunday roast in winter.

TipLunch and pre-theatre runs walk-in friendly. Sunday roast books a fortnight ahead through their site.

Directions Book

Rochelle Canteen ★ 4.6

££ British gastropubShoreditch

Margot Henderson's daily-changing British canteen inside a converted bike shed off Arnold Circus in Shoreditch London, open since 2004 for lunch.

Why locals goA daily-changing British canteen inside a converted bike shed off Arnold Circus that opens only for lunch and Thu-Sat dinner since 2004.

TipOpen Mon-Sat for lunch and Thu-Sat dinner only. No music, no printed menu; the day's run is on the wall.

Directions

Quality Chop House ★ 4.3

£££ Modern BritishClerkenwell

The 1869 Farringdon Road working-class dining room in Clerkenwell London, restored under Will Lander since 2012, runs daily-changing British cooking.

OrderThe famed confit potato, then mince and potatoes off the daily menu, with a bottle from the shop next door.

TipThe wine shop next door is corkage-free if you buy a bottle there. Lunch takes walk-ins at the counter Tue-Sat.

Directions Book

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